Pantry Staple Meatball Soup {using frozen meatballs!}
Pantry staple meatball soup uses up pantry items, and frozen meatballs to make a savory, hearty stovetop soup for dinner, lunches, or even to load up your freezer stash!
This soup is what happens when you want hamburger soup, but prefer the ease of just tossing frozen meatballs into a pot, and not want to wait to brown the meat.
That is right, frozen meatballs and pantry items make a rich tomato base, and a way to switch up plain old meatballs!
What kind of meatballs work best in meatball soup?
You could make fresh meatballs for this, but I would brown them before I put them in the soup.
I use frozen, raw turkey meatballs for this, but you can use any meatballs you have on hand – make sure you use a lean beef if you choose beef meatballs so that your soup isn’t too greasy.
You could even cut breakfast sausages into small pieces to make mini meatballs!
My freezer stash always has frozen meatballs in it, and I use this simple method to make and freeze individual raw meatballs. Here is where you can find the full how to method for making and freezing meatballs!
Ingredient Variations
- If you want to make this soup even more hearty, add 1/2 cup to rice to the soup. Note: I don’t recommend freezing soup with rice – the rice absorbs so much of the broth and becomes mushy.
- Add pasta like macaroni or any small pasta – again, I don’t recommend freezing the soup if you choose to do this.
- Not a fan of spice? – sub out the rotel tomatoes for plain diced tomatoes.
- Don’t have consomme – that is ok, just replace that volume with additional broth. The soup will have a bit thinner of a texture, but it is just fine!
- Don’t have Italian seasoning? In a pinch just sub this with oregano.
- Want to bump up the veggies? Add spinach in the last few minutes of simmering. You can also add potato or celery to this soup! You can also toss in frozen veggies in the last 5 minutes of cooking if that is what you have on hand.
- Vegetarian? That’s ok too! Swap the beef broth and consomme for veggie broth and use veggie ground to make your meatballs.
Ways to freeze this soup!
Freezing soup in individual portions is a perfect way to have grab and go lunches.
You can freeze soups in individual mason jars using this method, or use souper cubes trays!
Looking for more ways to use those freezer meatballs?
- Instant Pot Mexican Meatballs
- Swedish Meatballs
- Sheet Pan Greek Meatball Meal Prep
- Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Korean Inspired Meatballs
If you add meatball soup to your next meal plan, I want to see your creation! Tag me @mealplanaddict on Instagram or come post a photo in the Meal Plan Addict Community!
Pantry Staple Meatball Soup
Ingredients
- 15-20 frozen meatballs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 284 ml can consomme
- 284 ml can rotel tomatoes
- 4 cups beef broth
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup grated parm (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot.
- When the oil is hot, saute the onion, garlic and meatballs. The meatballs will not fully cook at this point, that is ok - they will cook in the soup.
- When the onion is translucent add the tomato paste, carrots, Italian seasoning, consomme, broth, and rotel.
- Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to medium low and allow to simmer for 25 minutes - or until the carrots are soft and the meatballs are cooked fully.
- Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the parmesan.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately, store in the fridge for no more than 4 days, or freeze for up to 4- 6 months.
Nutrition
